Baker Fire update, June 28

Smoke cleared enough on Saturday afternoon, allowing aircraft to fly and gave fire managers the opportunity to perform a reconnaissance flight of the Baker Fire #456, North Fork Fire #457 and the Beauty Fire #551. All three fires lie to the north of Baker Creek and the Elliott Highway, between mileposts 131 & 137, and south of New York Creek. The combined acreage of these fires is 5,493 acres.

While fire activity had moderated over the past several days with the heavy smoke and higher humidity, Incident Commander Matt Martens observed areas of increasing fire behavior during the reconnaissance flight. “With the smoke cleared out, the sun was able to begin drying out fuels, increasing fire behavior with isolated torching observed,” said Martens. Adding, “In these fuel types, even with the recent precipitation, it does not take long for them to dry out. Our goal is to be ready if the fire begins to awaken. The plan is to look for opportunities where we can safely insert crews to use direct suppression tactics on the fireline.”

Crews continue to improve defensible space around residences in the Baker Creek/Eureka area. In addition, crews worked to enhance the system of pumps, sprinklers, hoses and port-a-tanks that will be utilized if the fire makes an advance towards those structures.

Today the Chena Type 1 (Hotshot) crew will begin scouting access points to the fire perimeter in addition to working on improving dozer lines by thinning and brushing out portions of the line, and will begin constructing handline between existing dozer lines.

An Incident Command Post (ICP) has been set up at the Manley Hot Springs School. Fire Information will be posted at the board set up next to the Roadhouse. Additional information about other fires in the area will be posted as it is made available.